Ovitz: Career success resembles a Seurat pointillist painting of small dots
Michael Ovitz · Michael Ovitz: The Psychology of Power · Feb 3, 2026 · at 1:34:39
Michael Ovitz, former CAA chairman, shares his philosophical definition of life success with host Shane Parrish.
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“To me, success is a great Seurat painting. Syrah was the great pointillist. So if you looked at an inch of his work, they were all dots. You look at an inch, you don't see anything. Two inches, you don't see anything. Three, nothing. Four, maybe you see an appendage of something. Six, maybe something, a limb, a plant. 10, oh, there's a face. Then when it gets to be four feet, or three feet by two feet, You see an entire picture in front of your eyes, and that to me is the definition of success, is that our lives are made up of a lot of little dots, and when they tell the right picture, you hit it.”
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